If your life is anything like mine, you’re intimately familiar with the hectic day-to-day of running from one meeting to the next, frantically checking emails in between appointments, peeling yourself away from work in order to scarf down an early dinner before running the kids to soccer practice, only to finally allow pause sometime after 9pm where you’re too tired for much of anything before you finally collapse in bed only to start again the next day.

Your specific details may differ from mine, but busy is something I think we can all relate to.  And the more we engage life, the more it seems that life tugs right back at us, offering resistance after resistance in order to deter us from our Grand Purpose, our calling, or whatever else we call that thing we were put on this planet for.

How do we stay grounded amidst the craziness?

After tucking the boys in to bed after a crazy day, I often plop myself down on the couch, enjoy a nice beverage and my favorite sports team.  I find it relaxing to lose myself in the competition of incredible athletes doing amazing things.  In fact, I can see why so many people make a religion out of sports—rooting on our favorite team presents a welcome distraction from our present circumstances.

The problem I’ve found personally is that when I do that routine too regularly, I appreciate the healthy escape, but I don’t find myself feeling any less hectic.  Rather than feeling physically and emotionally rested, I feel a certain restlessness instead. 

Now, before you stop reading for fear that I’m suggesting you join some “distraction-free” cult, hang with me for a minute—I’m not advocating dumping your favorite team in favor of joining a monastery or something like that…

But I do find that sports (or sitcoms, or social media, or whatever digital medium you lose yourself in at the end of the day) is a nice distraction, but that it doesn’t satisfy completely…

This summer, my family and I enjoyed a road trip through the great Southwest.  We enjoyed the Grand Canyon, the mountains of Colorado, and filled our trip with outdoor action and adventure.

There were many tremendous memories from that trip, but one of my favorites was when my children experienced the rim of the Grand Canyon for the first time.  I even made sure to video their reaction as we stepped up to the edge, the boys peering down below, quickly lost in the vastness of the canyon.

As you know, pictures capture the beauty of the canyon, but it is impossible to experience the grandeur of it without actually being there.

It’s kind of like how I experience life.  When I allow a 2-dimensional version of life to be the summit of my experiences, things feel flat and lacking.  And to think, how often I stay in the comfort of a 2-D life, settling because I don’t know any better.

But in those moments where I allow myself to truly live, to truly experience life in 3-D, the depth of my experiences allows me to get lost in the grandeur of the infinite, even if it’s just in small doses:

Choosing to start my morning in quiet, savoring a good cup of coffee and a comfortable spot on the couch, and waiting to check my emails until after I’ve had a little time to pause…

Pausing during my day, even if it’s just for a few short minutes, to breathe, pray, and sit in silence…

Taking a morning walk or a bike ride, intentionally setting performance aside, in favor of enjoying beauty and silence…

Leaving early for an appointment so I don’t have to feel rushed and harried, allowing more time for noticing the subtle beauty wherever I might find myself…

Driving the speed limit, with my windows down and the radio off, and just breathing…

I think one of the reasons the human soul feels so refreshed in the great outdoors is that we were made to appreciate and bask in the infinite.  I believe that in those moments, we connect with our Creator on a level that’s just not very attainable otherwise.

And though I can’t live my life on the edge of the Grand Canyon every day, I can seek to find glimpses of the Infinite in the everyday, and those glimpses feed my soul in ways other two-dimensional distractions simply cannot.

Because when my soul is fed by the Infinite, I have the nourishment I need to carry out my purpose with depth, with steadfastness, and with a calm spirit.

Without it, I am nothing other than a piece of driftwood getting tossed about by life’s many waves. 

And so, even now, after writing this piece, I shall opt for a small dose of silence, losing myself in the Infinite before resuming with my day’s list of activities.

Here’s to plugging in to something Greater…